Dragon Gardens

Do you recall how, back in 2006, developers were about to rip down Dr Lee's Dragon Gardens in Sham Tseung in HK's New Territories, in order to extend the row of high-rise apartment buildings along the waterfront and how Dr Lee's granddaughter Cynthia Lee, against a great deal of family opposition, came racing back from Canada to try to save it?

 Cynthia in the top garden

talking about her plans

for the place.

And - what a hero! - she did save it, but now there are all sorts of problems with handing the place over as a gift to The People of Hong Kong, and so Dragon Garden lies languishing out there over the water while the HK Government dithers back and forth about finally developing a Conservation and Heritage Plan that allows them to accept the gift.  Sad, very sad.

Dragon Gardens are most famous for being the estate "in Bangkok" where James Bond goes several times to fight Christopher Lee in, I think, "Man With the Golden Gun". Or was that another film? Let me go into youtube, purveyer of all things, and see if I can find it for you:

Wow, do you know how many James Bond clips are in there?  It's frightening.  Some other time, maybe.

Anyway, while the HK Government dithers, Dragon Gardens is locked off from public view and it's been over four years and Cynthia now comes back to HK at intervals to document the decay ...

The increasingly rotting 

wood paneling!

... and on her latest visit - this week - The Canadian Consul asked if she could show the place to a group of interested Canadians who want to help with her fight, and because I wanted to see the place so badly Jason kindly faux-ed me up as a Kanak, but then Keith wanted to come too, and then the Redoubtable Walkers, and then Lee K., and so we all Kanaked-Up and Other Cynthia ...

 The Second Cynthia! 

Now there's a mix-up 

waiting to happen!

 ... got us all invited as well.  Thank you Cynthia and Other Cynthia!

And thank you too to Dr Lee and his wife who spent their Twilight Years building this spectacular garden:

An Inspiration to All of Us

who want to build a garden after we retire!

However, let me show you a bit of this Inspirational Couple's Dragon Gardens so you can see what was almost lost and could still be if the HK Government doesn't properly get it together and soon!

I'll show you the cave first since one thing I really want on my One-Day Dream Estate is my very own sacred cave:

 Kwan Yin,

Goddess of Mercy,

She Who Sees The Tears of the World.

Nice, huh! I'm definitely copying this idea, only with a much bigger Kwan Yin.

As for the rest, I also LOVE the idea of little tea pavilions scattered all over:

 And the Dragon the Gardens are named after:

All recycled. 

Dr Lee was way before his time.

And the Contemplation Garden dedicated to Dr Lee's good friend Dr Sun Yat-Sen:

 The quote, 

attributed here to Dr Sun Yet-Sen, 

reads "All Are Equal Under Heaven", 

but, as someone pointed out, 

it is actually a quote from Confucious.

And the copy of the Yuanmingyuan totem pole:

And, right atop the hill, the Mausoleum built by Dr Lee for his wife after she died, although I don't think I want to copy this idea:

But I do want to copy the mighty mosiacs!  In this area, all the traditional decorative bits, usually painted, are actually in ancient tiles:

Spectacular!

This entire area is especially beautiful:

 

Although these days the surrounding high-rise is increasingly intrusive:

In the background, the mean developer's 

encroaching developments!

And this is the only unimpeded view you get these days:

I think I don't want that for my One-Day Dream Garden.

Although I definitely want the acres of pristine rainforest.

In there, Cynthia Lee has documented the presence of so many rare butterflies and dragonflies that live and breed in there, and one species that isn't found anywhere else on earth, to bolster her chances of having this gift accepted by HK.

But, without a doubt, my favourite place and what I want the most after a sacred cave, is to be found there on the side of the hill in the jungle:

Right away from everything!

 A very special place.

It's the source of the natural spring with exceptionally pure water that used to run through the property, but doesn't any more because the HK Government built a highway above which cut it off. Very John Steinbeck, isn't it!, although you'd have to have read all of Steinbeck's novels and not just the popular stuff to know what I'm talking about.

This out-of-the-way place is where Dr Lee spent most of his time after his wife died. Yes, despite all the elaborate buildings all over his estate, as a very old man he spent long stretches of time in a primitive little tea house up here right by what John Steinbeck saw as "the source", drinking tea and thinking and with only two important items to fuel his contemplation on The Meaning of It All:

 Wouldn't it be nice to find out what it means;

that word so important it's carved in stone!

I love this place. It's a nice idea, isn't it? A simple spot for easing yourself out of this life and into All Eternity; Contemplating at The Source.

Mind you, you'd have to find land with it's own natural spring to do this one!

Beautiful, beautiful estate with so much I want ... but I have to tell you there's one more very important thing I also want to have:

 Cynthia's caretaker on the estate.

What a hoot! A genuinely funny and charming fellow. Like, when Cynthia was publicly praising him for going to so much trouble to source the exact same antique mosaic tiles for when they get around to doing the repairs, he said, very humbly, "Just doing my job!" then privately told me "I found them in the attic."

And then he showed me these little wonders also sourced "at great trouble" in the attic:

From Washington to Nixon, 

only NOT!

He thought they were just cute little toys so he welded them onto an upstairs table - in the process damaging one so threw it out - and only later discovered they were American Presidents and meant to be ordered chronologically ... but now discovers he's invented a game everyone wants to play: spinning the glass lazy-susan around to figure out who should go where and also playing "Spot the Missing President", which no one ever can solve.

It was very compelling and thus a bunch of "Us-Kanaks" ended up sitting around the table trying to solve it all ... and people actually had to come find us to tell us that the tour was over and the "Thank you, Cynthia" was starting downstairs and so we should leave now! 

So that was the tour. I know I've left out a great deal and I do intend to do another post showing "The Faded Grandeur" of the Interiors, but I hope I've given you some idea of what Cynthia Lee, Superhero, has so far accomplished with this fight.

So, once again, thank you so much ...

Cynthia and Cynthia ...

... for the enormous honour of letting us be Canadians for a day and allowing us to see this:

Dragon Garden!